The present invention relates to communication systems in general, and in particular to systems for recording address changes.
With the current advancements in communication technology, most people now have several methods by which they can be contacted. These methods include telephones, fax machines, electronic mail accounts, pagers, etc. In general, each of these devices has a number or address that associates the device with a particular individual or location.
As will be appreciated, the task of updating a list of numbers or addresses used to reach a desired individual can be time-consuming and prone to error. For example, area codes are often modified or people move from one location to another thereby rendering their old telephone number out of date. Currently, most address changes are recorded by a trial and error process. A user calls or attempts to send a message to an old number or address. In the case of a telephone number that has been changed, an error message is played indicating that the number has been changed and the user must record the new number by hand. However, in the case of some technologies, like electronic mail, an error message may be produced that indicates that a message could not be delivered but does not indicate a new address that should be used.
Given the shortcomings in the prior art, there is a need for a method of simplifying the task of maintaining an address book with telephone numbers and/or addresses of desired recipients.
The present invention is a communication system that operates to automatically communicate a change in a number or address of a source communication system. A memory associated with the source communication system stores the numbers or addresses of those destination communication systems that communicate with the source communication system. A new number or address message is generated that indicates the new number or address for the source communication system and the message is transmitted to each of the destination communication systems. The destination communication systems read the new number or address message and update a memory with the new number or address of the source communication system. The destination communication systems preferably transmit an acknowledge signal to the source communication system if they were able to read the message and update the source communication system""s number or address. For those systems unable to read the new number or address message, a voice or text message is generated by the source communication system and transmitted to the destination communication systems in order to inform a human operator of the change in the number or address of the source communication system. The voice or text message may also be transmitted to the destination communication systems that were able to read the new number or address message in order to inform a user that the memories of their communication system have been updated.
The present invention can be used to update the numbers or addresses of a variety of communication systems including telephone systems, facsimile machines or computer systems having an e-mail or Internet Protocol address.